From memory to marble: the frieze of the Voortrekker Monument at Pretoria

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Rolf Michael Schneider
• Subject Area: Art History ; Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: from 2014 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 254347259

Professor Elizabeth Rankin (Dep. of Art History, University of Auckland) and I initiated in 2012 the research project from memory to marble: the frieze of the Voortrekker Monument. Our aim is to write a book in English for academics in the fields of art history and cultural, historical and political studies. As a prelude to our book project we wrote the article Copy nothing. Classical ideals and Afrikaner ideologies at the Voortrekker Monument (c. 21,500 words, 38 illustrations). The symmetrical Art Deco cube of the Voortrekker Monument, 62 meters high, dominates a hill side overlooking Pretoria: erected between 1938 and 1949 to celebrate the centenary of the so-called Great Trek and the Battle of Blood River (16 December 1838), in which Boer Voortrekkers (pioneers) adelthough outnumbered, defeated Zulu forces. The building, from its beginnings controversial, is the main South African monument of a nationalist Boer ideology and the pernicious politics of apartheid (1948-94). The buildings great surprise is a historical frieze made of Carrara marble, 2.3 meters high and 92 meters long overall, staged at eye level inside the Hall of Heroes, an uninterrupted space of 30 x 30 x 30 meters. The frieze consists of 27 individual historical scenes referring to the different treks (departure, religion, advance, negotiation, victory, annexation of land, building works, treaty, etc.). From 1835 Calvinist Voortrekkers left the Eastern Cape, undertaking treks into the interior with the intent to annex land. Due to their territorial, economic, religious and political efforts, they ultimately paved the way for the legendary Great Trek and the present Republic of South Africa. The zigzagging histories of the Voortrekker Monument and its marble frieze have never been properly researched. As a result of our intensive research in South African archives (over 3,000 scans of unpublished documents and photos), however, we are now able to untangle and tell these histories comprehensively.Now we can bring all strands together: the making of the Voortrekker Monument (1938-49), the design of its frieze(c. 1936-49) including the early drawing by the painter Coetzer (1937), the later models in clay and plaster made by four South African sculptors (1942-47), the transport of the original-sized plaster models to Florence (1947-49) and the copying of the plaster reliefs into marble in the Studio Romanelli (1947-50), as well as the rich documentary evidence and the close collaboration with institutions in South Africa. We conceive our book as a pioneering case study in which we will analyze the meandering complexities and surprises in the process of designing an ambitious visual narrative in marble, and we will read this in the different political, art- and cultural-historical contexts.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: New Zealand
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Elizabeth Rankin